By.Scott Jackson
05/07/2025
While Kashmir is rife with violence, this attack against tourist is against the unwritten rule between the militant groups and the local population who rely so heavily on the tourism industry.
On Wednesday, India launched Operation Sindoor, utilizing fighter launched missiles to attack 9 targets in Pakistan and the Pakistani controlled region of Kashmir. The m strikes destroyed multiple locations used by terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), two of the largest Kashmir focused terror groups operating from Pakistan.
The missile attacks were launched by India as retaliation for the April 22nd, 2025 attack in Pahalgam that left 26 people dead and injured a dozen more. The attack had been carried out on a tourist sightseeing destination in Kashmir and is one of the largest attacks on the region. The sightseers were ambushed on a path only accessible by foot or by horseback, in a meadow near a cliff, making escape during the attack unlikely. There were no car roads for miles.
India claimed Pakistani goverment involvement had been discovered during the course of their investigation which Pakistan denies.
Survivors tell of the horrors they witnessed that day, as gunmen opens fire from close range hitting one father in the head as his family watched.
One survivor, Asavari Jagdale, told PTI that the gunmen came into the tent where they were hiding and accused them of being supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The gunmen then killed all the male members of her family before her eyes.
A local resident, Abdul Waheed told CNN that he jumped on his pony to help transport the wounded to areas where they could be transported by car. He even called others to help in this task.
“I saw people crying, screaming, just lying in the aftermath of the attack. There were children, women, men, everyone,” Abdul said. “It was a massive trauma. I did not sleep all night.”
That brings us to today. On Monday India launched a “Operation Sindoor“, a strike involving SLAM-ER (Storm Shadow) Cruise missiles and AASM HAMMR bombs being launched at targets believed to be associated with Pakistani terrorist.
India launched strikes on 9 targets with a reported 24 strikes. In the course of these attacks Pakistan claims it responded with air defense and Chinese made fighters and shot down 4 Indian fighter jets. One confirmed DeAssault Rafale, although Pakistan claims three more Rafale’s along with a MIG-29 and an SU-30 were also shot down.
Pakistan’s Air Force….” engaged with the Indian fighter jets in self-defense” and shot down five aircraft and a number of drones.
Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s foreign minister and military spokesman
Ishaq also claimed that Chinese-made J-10C fighters were responsible for the shoot down using the (also Chinese-made) PL-15E air-to-air missile.
Video footage alleging to show an Indian Rafale crashing outside Bathinda Air Force base was also released. While a plane was reported to have crashed there by credible sources we don’t yet know if it was another Rafale. Will verify if possible.
Today (May 8th), has seen the continuation of violence as Pakistan responded to yesterday’s missile attack with a round of artillery and a drone attack stretching across several regions of India across much of the border region, as shown in the map below.
Both the Pakistan and Indian Navy’s issues NOTMAR’s (Notice to Mariners) warning maritime traffic of simultaneous navel weapons firing.
While this has escalated to slightly more than a border skirmish, it hasn’t yet spiraled out of control, however with both countries being nuclear powers it seems like all eyes are on India and Pakistan for the time being.
More later.
Thank you for reading. I hope you get as much out of what I’m doing here as I get out of making these reports. If so I would invite you to join my Patreon. Doing that would help me more than I can describe. I’ve kept it as cheap as possible to become a member. It’s only a $1.00. Audio content very soon.
Thank you for all the support over the years and as we continue to grow and evolve.
-Scott
Global Conflict Reporting 
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